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Premier Kathleen Wynne downplayed a scheduled visit Wednesday to her office by OPP officers investigating the deliberate destruction of crucial gas plant emails and other documents by senior Liberal staffers.

“This is an investigation that was requested by the opposition. We have said all along that we will co-operate completely,” Wynne told reporters during a news conference.

The OPP’s Anti-Rackets Branch officers have already interviewed staff from former Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty’s office but the Toronto Star was told they simply wanted to get a lay of the land in order to understand how the office operates.

Wynne’s office earlier Wednesday refused to confirm the planned visit by the OPP, and the Star was unable to confirm whether police had followed through on it.

OPP Commissioner Chris Lewis declined to talk about details of the investigation.

“Our investigators are continuing their investigation as we speak. I cannot yet comment on who has been interviewed or who will be, what evidence has been found or whether or not any breaches of legislation have been uncovered,” said Lewis.

However, he said, “We will certainly make the public aware of where we are when we are in a position to disclose our findings.”

The Tories and New Democrats have accused the Liberals of destroying emails to hide the true cost of cancelling the two gas plants, which is now known to be as much as $1.1 billion.

NDP MPP Peter Tabuns (Toronto—Danforth) said the legislative committee probing the cancellation and relocation of gas plants in Mississauga and Oakville revealed “that a number of Liberal insiders working on the gas plant file were destroying all their record on this and that’s against the law that the Liberals put in place.”

Even McGuinty, when appearing a second time before the committee, acknowledged “we failed as a government” on document retention training. He was referring to Information and Privacy Commission Ann Cavoukian’s finding that top Liberal political staffers destroyed emails and documents contrary to the Archives and Recordkeeping Act.

Tory MPP Lisa MacLeod (Nepean—Carleton) told reporters “that the police are going to treat the premier’s office as the scene of a crime and this is virtually unheard of.”

“It is an extremely sad day for democracy in this province when our premier, Kathleen Wynne, is going to have to entertain the OPP . . . in a police search of her office,” MacLeod said Wednesday in a teleconference from her riding.

The RCMP searched then-premier Mike Harris’ offices in June 2001 for confidential documents related to the Walkerton water tragedy. The investigation was undertaken as part of the public inquiry into how the water tragedy happened and into allegations the government ignored early warnings about inadequate water quality inspections in the province.

Wynne’s office countered that the premier has “demonstrated her commitment to being open and transparent about the Mississauga and Oakville gas plant relocations.”

“We will continue to co-operate fully in any effort to gather information — unfortunately I am not able to comment further,” Wynne’s press secretary Zita Astravas said in an email statement.

Wynne asked the provincial auditor general to investigate and reports on the true cost of cancelling and relocating the gas plants. Auditor general Bonnie Lysyk handed down her office’s second of two reports last month stating that total cost could be up to $1.1 billion to the Ontario taxpayers and ratepayers.

Earlier this year, privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian blasted Craig MacLennan, a former chief of staff to past energy ministers Brad Duguid and Chris Bentley, and David Livingston, former premier Dalton McGuinty’s last chief of staff, for failing to preserve records, only to learn later that she had been wrongly told by senior bureaucrats that the emails were irretrievable.

MacLeod also mocked the latest Liberal TV ad showing Wynne running in the hills of Caledon.

“It looks like she is running away from the OPP,” said the outspoken MPP.

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